


congratulations on cleaning up your mess with bellies and songs.

by bobbingformangos



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 15:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11421249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobbingformangos/pseuds/bobbingformangos
Summary: Regina purposes Emma's help in faking a relationship, and to help raise a baby that isn't her's, and it really ends up with people cleaning up their messes. Beautiful, some would say. (swan queen week: fake relationship).





	congratulations on cleaning up your mess with bellies and songs.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I am posting my stories back up on AO3. Some are unfinished but have been requested over the years. I hope that you enjoy. I think it would take a lot of inspiration to come back and finish these stories due to not being in the fandom anymore (and, you know, getting married, starting a fam, those kinds of things) - but who knows, maybe one day. The wife and I have a tumblr where I sometimes write things (under the tag "ave wrote this") - the tumblr is called weforgottoeatthecake

congratulations on cleaning up your mess with bellies and songs.

by bobbingformangos

Summary

Regina purposes Emma's help in faking a relationship, and to help raise a baby that isn't her's, and it really ends up with people cleaning up their messes. Beautiful, some would say. (swan queen week: fake relationship).

swan queen week: fake relationships

(unedited)

-

congratulations on cleaning up your mess with bellies and songs.

(17/200)

-

It’s four in the morning when Emma gets woken up from her restless sleep. She hasn’t been sleeping well in the last few months. She’s been sulking and her guilt was eating away at her from the inside out and it was starting to show in the bags under her eyes and the loss of weight and Regina still hasn’t spoken to her. Emma tried and tried and even wrote the woman letters, but there was no word. Nothing. Not even threats on her life with apple flavored foods laced with poison.

It was surprising when Emma let out a gasp as she scooted back against the headboard, sheets clutched in her hands, as she noticed someone sitting at the end of the bed with their head in their hands. And yes, maybe Emma still had scars from her childhood and gets scared shitless when someone is sitting at the edge of her bed but it quickly goes away when she notices how long Regina’s hair had gotten. It was messy, slept on, and Regina was wearing pinstriped pajamas similar to the jammies that Henry wears when he is staying in the loft with her half the week.

“Regina?” Emma whispers into the dark room but she only met with a shaking head. It hurts even now, knowing that Regina is a few feet away and denying her and for a moment Emma panics because she is thinking like that again, that Regina is denying her, and Emma’s thinking about love and loss chances and chances she’s never had and it hurts. It hurts in the pits of her stomach that makes it feel like she’s having cramps instead of bouts of hopelessness and self hatred.

She can see Regina sighing, heading the exhale of breath in the darkness despite the light sounds of her music playing from her iPhone on the bedside table. The wispy sounds and husky voice of TV on the Radio is settling in Emma’s bones and creating an electricity that is calming her, helping her hands untangle from the sheets and her to slowly inch her way toward the woman on the edge of the bed. Emma crawls, only in her blue undies and an old tshirt from her days at some odd middle school, and soon she is behind Regina. She reaches a hand out, she notices Regina shaking, and the moment she touches her shoulder Regina starts to cry and cry and cry.

Emma did this, didn’t she? She did this to this woman and she hated herself, more so than she has in the last few months. To hear Regina’s broken sobs, light and the former queen tried and tried to cover them and close her lips but her body heaved in a way that scared Emma. Regina turned, meeting Emma’s eyes - it was hopeful thinking that Emma saw seedlings of something growing there for her, affection maybe - her bottom lip was quivering and Emma wondered if this was what Regina looked like as a girl, needing her mother’s love, but instead getting an abundance of loneliness and insults thrown against her face.

“May I hold you?” Emma whispers, barely auditory, into the night air because she doesn’t ever want to do something that Regina doesn’t want her to do ever again if she can help it. It’s the slight nod from Regina that has Emma scrambling forward to wrap her arms around the woman and it’s awkward, it really is awkward, but Regina settles into Emma’s arms before wrapping her own around Emma’s waist and soon the women are holding tight to each other. They are each other’s rescue boats as the titanic sinks into the icy depths - they are the rescue boats in that moment.

And, honestly, they really did need each other.

-

“You’re wasting away, Emma,” Regina murmurs against Emma’s shirt, her fingers are now pinching and unpinching the fabric of Emma’s shirt. She’s just Regina in the darkness and Emma is just Emma and the blonde is relieved because Regina was speaking to her after two months of not. It’s comforting and there is that feeling whelming up again, it’s dangerous.

Emma shrugs and replies lightly, “You’re crying, Regina.”

Regina nods against Emma before resting her chin on Emma’s shoulder. She’s never really been this close to the blonde. It’s better than she thought it would be, Emma smells like lavender and it’s very comforting. It’s not a synthetic smell either, it’s as if she was grown in a field of lavender, it’s in her skin. It really is comforting and Regina inhales. It’s calming her stomach in a way that it hasn’t been calmed in a while and she sighs against the blonde. Her tears slowly sliding away as she continues to play with the edges of Emma’s shirt.

“I’m right here, Regina,” Emma whispers into the air. She thinks of Henry and she thinks of Regina holding her hand and giving away her happy ending and Emma thinks about how she really kinda does love this woman in more ways than one. She whispers again, “I’m here, Regina, if you need me.”

And Regina does. Need her that is.

“I need you to pretend you’re in love with me,” Regina says - voice mayoral as if she’s about to make the biggest deal of the forth quarter - she continues, her fingers now fisting into her shirt. “I need you to pretend that we are lovers.”

The words are so far away, distant and lost, as if they are the last resort that Regina could even consider. Emma is taken aback and flattered and offended and she leans back, dropping her arms as she looks at Regina confused. The moon is full tonight, shining through the blinds of Emma’s apartment and kissing Regina’s cheek in a gentile way that Emma has only dreamed about and it’s all starting to kind of hurt. It’s out harsher than Emma’s ever wanted to speak to Regina, “Why?”

Regina scoots back, away from Emma, and smoothing out the pants of her pajamas, and hardens her face. “I know how hard that can be but you owe me, Emma. You took away my chance at happiness and now I’m stuck and I will not do this again by myself. Not that I can’t do it by myself, because I can, but I’m too lonely for this, Emma, and I don’t want it to be raised with them and, you owe me, Emma Swan.”

Emma’s confused for moments. She’s taken aback by the nervousness and uncertainty in Regina’s voice and it causes Emma’s to turn and tilt her head for a moment, looking over Regina. It takes her eighteen seconds to realize what Regina’s talking about and it’s only because Regina brings a hand to her abdomen and curls fingers gingerly across the span of it and, yes, Emma finally realizes.

“You’re pregnant,” Emma whispers and its broken in so many ways but sounds like she’s surprised and she can hear the shattering of glass in her head, of the fact that she really does love this woman and she would never have her love, not really, but apparently she’s trusted enough to fake a relationship with Regina because of? “Why?” Emma asks again, not completely understanding.

Regina sweeps her tongue over her top teeth, moving closer to Emma once more. She reaches out for Emma’s hand because it comforts her and it comforts it and she’s been having dreams of the blonde for the last few months and it’s apparently trying to tell her this, this was the answer to her worries. So, she confesses softly into the room, into the night, holding Emma Swan’s hand, “I don’t want him to ever know. We got caught up in the fairy dust and it was one time and its happy now. I accept that and would never want to take that away. I need you to do this for me, with me, and I know its selfish of me really, but you owe me something, Emma. We can say it was magic, that it’s yours, I just -“

“I’ll do it,” it’s out in a rush of words, pushing past her pale and chapped lips. Her hand is squeezing Regina’s and she doesn’t chance at looking at Regina because she’s afraid that the other woman will realize that Emma wouldn’t be pretending. Well, the love part. Emma wouldn’t be pretending that she was in love with her because the blonde’s been in love with her for a very, very long time. So, instead Emma nods to emphasize her answer.

Regina sighs, squeezing back while her other hand olds her flat stomach. She hasn’t started to swollen yet but she could feel it’s magic swirling inside her. She’s relieved and she’s selfish and she loves this thing inside of her and she trusts Emma in more ways than she realizes. She lays her head against Emma’s shoulder, murmuring, “Thank you, Emma.”

And it’s the most affectionate thing that Regina’s has ever said to the savor. -

They fall asleep at some point and it doesn’t feel like faking anything when Emma wakes up with Regina’s head on her chest and her hands in dark locks of hair and it feels a tiny bit like home. But Emma reminds herself that it’s not real and Regina trusts her and she’s helping Regina out and soon enough the sun is too bright in the room that it wakes the other woman up. She lifts her head, noticing their positions, and gives Emma a tight smile before sitting up and stretching her back and then quickly putting her hand on her stomach - eyes widening.

Emma notices the move easily, thinking about Henry flopping around her stomach like a little fish and how she vomited for the first four months, and she quickly turns to reach for the little plastic trash can next to her bed with an empty water bottle in it and holds it under Regina’s mouth as the woman vomits and vomits and vomits. One hand is holding the trash while the other reaches to push back Regina’s hair so that it doesn’t get any bile in it. And soon, it’s over and Regina groans as she curls back up next to Emma while Emma turns to sit the trashcan back next to the bed - she’ll clean it in a little bit.

She settles back down into the covers, next to Regina, on her side facing the curled up woman. She puts her hand on Regina’s abdomen, causing the dark haired woman to look up. Emma gives her a gentle smile and begins to lightly rub above Regina’s pelvis. “Oh,” is all Regina says as her eyes close.

It’s comforting to both women, surly.

It’s nearly an hour later that Regina speaks up. Her voice is raspy from sleep and disuse and vomiting. “You can say no, to all of this, if you want. It wasn’t fair that I asked you.”

Emma quickly shakes her head, her hand still rubbing soft circles, now under Regina’s shirt. Her skin is warm and Emma feels a warm coming from her fingers and she can feel something there - can she feel it? With her magic? “No, I’ll do it.” Emma replies, and then chuckles lightly at Regina, eyes moving to meet hers, “I mean, we already share one kid, right?”

And Regina shouldn’t smirk at Emma making light of the situation but she does smile just a little bit because maybe she needs that. Maybe she needs Emma more than she really thinks or believes and it takes a little bit of the weight off her shoulders. She offers to the blonde, “So magical true love sex created this?”

Emma cocks an eyebrow, both at Regina’s language and mentioning of those big “fairy tale” words, “True Love, huh?”

Regina shrugs, as if its common knowledge, “How else would we make a baby that’s your’s?”

And Emma accepts it, as if that’s the most natural answer in the world. Of course, of course True Love would be able to create a magical baby despite the lack of equipment. Of course it would.

-

They figure that it would make sense to be seen in public a little bit more before they come out with news of their relationship. It’s natural how well they fall into the groove of things - breakfast at Granny’s, taking Henry out for ice cream together, being seen walking around the town and then going to the Town Hall to pick apples and eat them. It’s confusing. Emma’s been locking herself away and Regina’s been cold to everyone and suddenly, they were out in public together.

It was fucking concerning to half the people and caused smiles on a few people’s face and it felt like a budding friendship to Regina and butterflies to Emma and they still bickered back and forth like they usually did.

“This is nice,” Regina admitted, biting into an apple as she sat in the grass and Emma wondered when was the last time that this woman actually sat down in grass. It caused her to smile and take out her phone.

Emma nodded, taking a seat next to Regina so that their shoulders bumped. “It is - now act like you’re enjoying this.”

Regina squinted her eyes at Emma in confusion before noticing that Emma was turning the camera of her phone around on the screen so it was pointing at them. There were people walking on the side walk and this would be something they could go to Granny’s about and gossip about. Regina smirked, Emma was actually smart sometimes. So, Regina leaned in, turning to press a kiss onto Emma’s cheek as Emma’s eyes widen and the camera took a series of four photos - one after another - while people ran and told half the town that something was seriously up with the Sheriff and the Mayor and it was weird.

It didn’t matter, really, because Emma felt Regina’s lips against his cheek - near her mouth - and she had a photo on her phone to prove it.

Regina went back to eating her apple and Emma leaned back, resting her head on Regina’s shoulder. She whispered, “You do realized you asked me to be the second parent, right?”

Regina nodded, shrugging her shoulders, “I trust you, Emma.” That was enough for Emma.  
-

They were holding hands and putting them on top of the white, wooden table in the loft when they told Henry, Charming, and Snow (who held the baby). It kind of cemented the words and even though Regina held Emma’s hand for that reason alone, Emma caressed her thumb over Regina’s fingers and she knew that this was really dangerous. Actually, it was this exact moment that she realized that this was really, really, really dangerous.

She loved Regina. Fucking loved her. And it was scary.

Then Regina turned to look at Emma, offering her a small smile and squeeze of her hand, and Emma calmed almost instantly. So, Emma turned to her parents and their son and gave a similar smile to them. And she told a story that, of course, was her faking everything completely. “I knew I loved her the day in the mines when she was sacrificing herself for all of us. I think that’s why it was so easy to go back to help her. Not just because of Henry, but because of loved her.”

The words held so much emotion that it was convincing to everyone. Regina turned, eyes furrowed as her eyes glanced over Emma. Her eyes flickered across the side of Emma’s face, observing the emotions crossing the blonde’s eyes and the movements of her face and she noticed that Emma’s palm was sweaty. And when Emma turned to look at her with that fucking Charming smile, Regina couldn’t help but give her one back. The words slipped out of the former queen’s lips so easily, “Neverland, I realized in Neverland. It scared the shit - sorry Henry - out of me.”

Emma turned and met Regina’s eyes, her breath pausing, but then she turned back to her parents unable to meet Regina’s eyes. She reminded herself that this was fake, that Regina was good at this - lying - and she kind of forgot that she could always tell when Regina was lying. She pushed that away, not second guessing herself. It’s dangerous otherwise, she was sure of it.

Snow opened her mouth to say something, to object, and Emma quickly silenced her by reaching across the table with her free hand. She said softly, tears in her eyes, “Mom, Neal told me to find Tallahassee. Remember? And I did. I finally did.”

Snow’s mouth closed, audible, and she nodded. She was crying and she didn’t know if it was because she was happy for her daughter or worried or just a mixture of a 40 odd year build up of emotions and history with the former queen and it was uneasy in her stomach.

But Henry, well Henry smiled lightly and nodded his head, “I knew there was always something between you guys.”

And it took them by surprise, Regina more than Emma, because Henry tended to be right most of the time. He had a heart that sensed those things. And both women smiled at him and Regina reached out with her free hand to grasp Henry’s and they were all connected in a way because Snow was hold Charming’s hand and he was holding the baby now and it was that moment that Emma announced without any hesitation, “It’s kind of true love, by the way, cause we’re gonna have a magic baby too.”

Her mother gasped.

Her father’s eyes widen.

Henry looked back and forth and then back and forth again.

And, well, Regina shook her head and looked at Emma, taunting, “Eloquent, Miss Swan, always so eloquent.”

-

Telling Snow meant that by the next day when Emma, Regina, and Henry went into Granny’s to have breakfast, the entire town new. Someone even mentioned that the news made it onto Good Morning Storybrooke, and Henry was disappointed that he didn’t get interviewed.

As they were eating their eggs and fruit, Regina leaned over and whispered into Emma’s ear, “We’re pretty convincing, Emma.”

And it was a shiver that caused Regina to pause, wonder, before kissing the blonde’s cheek and going back to her food.

She might have developed an affection for the woman next to her. It was easy to let go of the pain that Emma inadvertently caused. Really easy, actually.

-

Robin hears the news and finds her in her office. She is doing paper work when he knocks on the door and invites himself inside. Roland isn’t with him and it saddens Regina. She misses the little boy and it kind of hurts that she hasn’t seen him. She remembers he has a mother, though, one that he’s heard story and story about that makes her precious and necessary and every kid deserves a mother.

“You know, sometimes Soul Mates fill many other roles in people’s lives, it doesn’t have to be romantic,” is the first thing he says to her as he walks closer to her desk, catching her attention. “So, maybe we were just meant to be really good friends, yeah?”

And Regina lets out a breath that she doesn’t know that she’s been holding and she leans forward and nods her head, “Yeah, I think you are right.”

Talking to him has always been easy, she can’t deny that. So she continues, “I think I forgot that for a while.”

Robin chuckles and shrugs his shoulder, “Me too. I think we got lost in our hearts for a while, but we’ve found our way back. I think this was meant to be, Emma finding Marian. It set us both straight. You were always meant to be with the Swan Princess - it all adds up when you think about it - and she was always supposed to have a chance at raising your kid. I think we found our happy endings, don’t you, Regina?”

It’s the first time that Regina thinks of him as a sperm donor and the baby as Emma’s. Because Regina has a feeling he kind of knows but he’s kind of giving her this blessing to continue this charade and Regina kind of does want to continue this charade because it feels more right than anything else in her entire life (besides Henry, her son will always be concrete in her heart). And she wonders about what he says and it starts growing a seedling inside her into a plant as she thinks and thinks and starts putting this puzzle together.

Regina whispers her agreement and her thanks and a smile and Robin makes a comment that maybe they can call her and Emma up to babysit Roland sometimes. Of course, they’ll offer the same once the baby arrives.

Because he’s right, Soul Mates doesn’t mean marriage and babies and love. It just means people made from pieces of the same star in similar galaxies, or something like that, at least that’s what Emma would mutter about.

-

They are still faking it when Regina is seven months pregnant and now it doesn’t make sense for Emma to live away so she moves into the mansion. In the name of faking it all, she sleeps in Regina’s bed (like she has been anyway) and it’s comforting that they cuddle each other in the middle of the night. It’s as if in the unconscious states they are drawn to each other. And right before bed, when Emma sings to her stretched belly (because apparently both women are decent singers) the baby does summersaults inside of Regina and pushes it’s feet against Emma’s cheek and Regina knows that the baby loves Emma already.

-

Regina starts to look at Emma differently. She starts to caress her cheek or press more and more kisses against the corner of her lips or holds her hand even when no one is around and its starting to confuse her. She wonders when they crossed the line - when it went from faking the relationship for somewhat silly reasons and because Emma owed her to actually being in a relationship and developing feelings that are a lot less innocent in nature.

Emma’s leg is over her’s and her head is on Regina’s shoulder that night and her hand is resting under Regina’s night shirt (Emma’s old high school shirt) on her belly and Regina’s hand is in Emma’s hair. It’s nearly three and of course Regina is up again because she’s pregnant and why didn’t anyone tell her that you barely sleep when you are pregnant? So, like most nights, she is combing her fingers through Emma’s hair and thinking.

“I think I might have fallen in love with you, Emma Swan,” she whispers against Emma’s forehead. She feels her heart beating too fast and hard and there is tears stinging in her eyes and she feels herself truly, finally let go of Daniel and embrace his words. It’s a simple and euphoric moment. It’s always was Emma Swan and Regina didn’t like fate much or even thought of it often anymore, but it was hard to not thank the universe for leading her here, to this moment, to Emma’s hand resting on her stomach and her head above her head and Regina bends down to kiss Emma’s forehead.

This woman who’s been to hell and back, who was selfless and loved just as hard as her and who held tightly to her family and who was broken but not completely - Regina loved her.

It warmed her, when Emma snuggled closer, so she whispered again, “I’ve fallen in love with you.”

And it surprised her when Emma cuddled deeper, turning her face this way and that to nuzzle closer, muttering against her heart, “Good. Finally.”

-

Their first kiss was a month and half later when Regina was mid contraction. “I love you too,” Emma whispered against her lips. “You are so strong Regina and I love you.”

It made having the baby a tiny bit easier. She still threatened Emma’s life because she was there and she could and she knew that no matter what she did, Emma would always be there. So she threatened to cut out her heart and feed from it. Apparently, she was violent.

-

She didn’t cry. It scared Regina. It terrified Emma enough to burst out into tears. They were in their bedroom, a midwife next to Emma reaching for the still baby, as the blonde held her - caught her as Regina pushed her earth side - and she didn’t cry or move and she was silent. Henry screamed and Emma never got to hold him and he had dark hair on his head but she had blonde, golden curls and it was eight in the morning and the sun was shining into the room and she didn’t cry.

“Pat her back,” the midwife, a friend of Ruby’s actually, whispered calmly. “Put her against your heart and pat her back.”

And Emma moved a little closer because she was still attached to the undelivered placenta but she put her against her bare chest, skin against skin, and pat her back. Once. No cry. Twice. No movement. Regina cried out and laid back on the bed in defeat, everything she loves died. Emma’s crying and the midwife is squeezing her shoulder. Third. Forth. Fifth.

The tiny little thing coughs and wails and Emma is crying harder and she meets Regina’s eyes and there is a burst of true love in that moment. It bursts and bursts and bursts and soon Emma is handing the baby to Regina and Regina is sobbing and pressing the baby against her breast and the baby feeds and feeds and wails and feeds and she was alive because everything that Regina loves lives and lives and lives and the sun continues to shine in the room.

-

So it's not fake anymore, they can finally admit that out loud. “I don’t think it ever really was fake,” Emma whispers as she presses a kiss against Regina’s shoulder. They are three days into having a newborn and Emma’s parents are in the guest room sleeping and Henry is at the foot of the bed (too gangly and long but somehow he curls up) and Emma is whispering things to Regina, kissing her and kissing her, and then she moves down a little bit where the tiny little one is asleep at Regina’s breast,

her mouth open around her nipple and completely milkdrunk. Emma meets Regina’s tired eyes, her hand going to intertwine with Regina’s as she whispers, “For me, it wasn’t at least.”

Regina smile and then closes her eyes as Emma begins to lightly sing to her family, “Someone holds me safe and warm, horses prance through a silver storm. Figures dancing gracefully, across my memory.”

Its all beautiful, really. Them. Together. -

Regina’s too classy to announce her baby’s name at Granny’s. Instead the Town Hall is filled with people standing out into the lobby and even on the front lawn. They are wearing crowns of Lavender, even the tiny little girl wearing the same white gown that her nephew wore. It’s two weeks after her birth and Henry cradles her against his chest as he smiles down at her and waits for everyone to start.

Snow and Regina stand side by side but her thinks his mom looks more like a Queen. It surprises him, though, that Emma takes the tiny little thing, a baby girl with blonde curls and sea green eyes who coos up at her. She smiles down before looking up, stepping between her mother and her love and looks out onto the crowd.

“She looks like a Queen,” Henry finds himself leaning over to whisper to his grandfather and Charming nod really quickly because he sees it too - the perfect blend between Snow and Regina - and it’s surprising and comforting.

“I want to thank you for being here, each and everyone of you are so very important and helped into bringing our daughter to fruition.” Emma says, voice strong and emotional and she’s both nervous and regal and absolutely beautiful. Snow looks at her daughter and see the Swan Princess that she was meant to be - the one that even Snow couldn’t have imagined. She lays a hand on her daughters shoulder because she missed out on everything but she didn’t miss out on this and she realizes that she still has so much more to see. Emma doesn’t feel like a replacement when Snow does that, its comforting.

Emma turns to look at Regina, a huge (almost Charmingly goofy) smile breaks out across Emma’s face before she turns to the crowd. Some people are smiling and some are crying and most are holding gifts or well wishes and little Roland standings in the aisle with a small bow on his back and his hands on his small waist - a self instated protector of the new princess, he promises - and Emma’s punched in the gut again with the realization that this was home. This was her family.

“When I was a little girl, I watched a movie and heard a story of a lost princess. Over and over I watched, it provided hope in the darkest of times. And it was only when I was brought to storybrooke, I realized that the princess is finally found and finally offered a family that she desperately wanted. So, our daughter is not only named after someone who’s a hero or someone’s we have lost - but also after something that provided me hope in my darkest times, ” Emma pauses, turning to look at Regina and crinkles her nose. Because she feels proud of this name, something that hits her heart in so many ways and grateful that Regina understood and allowed it. "We are proud to introduce to you, our daughter, Her Highness, Anastasia Margaret Cordelia Swan-Mills. ”

-

At some point Regina was a rosy cheeked girl with hopes and dreams and a love of something she has never touched before and Emma hoped that Regina got pieces of that back (and continues to get pieces of it back) and she hoped that the tiny little girl wiggling around in her arms always felt that and somewhere inside of herself, Emma hoped that for herself too. She truly did.


End file.
